by John Kumiski

You'd like to visit one of Florida's last undeveloped Gulf Coast barrier islands for a few days. You don't know how to get there, what to bring, or what to expect. You'd like to catch some fish, but don't know what's available. This Special Report will tell you what you need to know about camping and fishing at Cayo Costa State Park!

Access and Other Preliminaries
Since it's an island, surrounded by water, you need to reach it by boat. If you have your own, boat ramps are available on Gasparilla Island at Port Boca Grande, in Placida just before the toll booth on the causeway out to Gasparilla Island (CR 775), and at the Pineland Marina, on Pine Island off of SR 767. You'll need a chart- waterproof chart #21, Ft. Myers Beach to Tampa Bay, available from International Sailing Supply, 320 Cross Street, Punta Gorda, FL 33950, 800-423-9096, is the one to carry. The docks at Cayo Costa are at the northeast side of the island (on the west side of Pelican Bay). You shouldn't have much trouble finding them since the main dock is quite large and the area is used as an anchorage by numerous sailboats.

If you're camping at the park you can leave your boat moored to the dock for free. Bring at least four mooring lines, and don't tie them too snugly- the tide will go out from under the boat, and it may capsize if the ropes are too tight.

For those without a boat, the Tropic Star out of Pineland Marina carries passengers out to the island for a fee. Call Pineland Marina at (941) 283-0015 for reservations or more information.

It's a good idea to call the park and make reservations if you intend to stay overnight. Their phone number is (941) 964 0375. The campsites are right on the Gulf and are sheltered from the sun by Australian pines. These trees shed little seed pods that will make you glad you brought a sleeping mat!

The park also has small cabins available. These have bunk beds, you supply the bedding. There is a bath house (cold water showers) and restrooms, but no electricity at the campground. They are ugly. Personally I'd rather tent.

Lastly, when you pull in at the dock you are not at the campground. The dock is on the bay side, and the campground is on the Gulf. A good half mile separates the two. Although the park ranger will transport your gear on a tram, if you own a boat it's not a terribly convenient arrangement. I've pulled my boat around and moored it in the little lagoon just to the south of the campground. Sandbars form this area, and they shift with the weather, appearing and disappearing. Check the area out before you decide whether or not to use this place.

What to Bring- Camping
Once you're out on the island restocking anything or acquiring "should-a-broughts" is impossible. If you want it, bring it with you.

If you're tenting you'll need a tent, ground cloth, sleeping mat, and sleeping bag. As I age I find a pillow is a great comfort. If you're staying in a cabin all you'll need is a pillow and sleeping bag.

A stove, pots and pans, and other cooking accessories are needed for food preparation. You'd better keep your food in a quality cooler and tie it up at night or the raccoons will rob you blind. You can't get ice out there so I tend to bring foods that don't need refrigeration and use the cooler as a pannier box.

Although I dislike the things, most people like a Coleman lantern. Some kind of light comes in handy after the sun sets.

You need clothes to protect yourself from the sun, cold (winter), rain, and insects. Beach garb is certainly appropriate. Clothes that dry fast when wet are preferred. I like army fatigue pants during the cooler months and doctor's scrubs when it's hot. Even in summer a lightweight, long-sleeved shirt helps keep the sun off by day and the insects off at night.

Take all the usual medicines and toiletries. When I camp I tend to let my personal hygiene slide, feeling that if you smell good then the mosquitoes like you better. I have absolutely no evidence to back this theory though, so shower yourself silly if you want. There are lots of sandspurs in the "grass" at the top of the beach, so don't abandon your shoes.

Speaking of insects, repellant is a good idea. Sunscreen is an absolute necessity. A hat and quality eyewear are important whether or not you're fishing. There's a lot of poison ivy on the island too. If you like running through the woods you'd best bring some calamine lotion or its modern equivalent.

Leisure activities include shelling, sketching/painting, writing poetry, and photography. There are miles of trails suitable for hiking or biking. Dozens of different bird species will be observed, and many other species of wildlife will be seen too, including dolphins, armadillos, feral pigs, snakes, even scorpions (be alert for these guys when handling firewood). Whatever your favorite activity might be, bring your supplies and guidebooks with you.

The park rangers are trying to return the vegetation to its native state by cutting down the exotics, especially the Australian pines. There's plenty of firewood, although you might have to hike to get it. A community campfire is a frequent occurrence at night at the park. If you play acoustic guitar or bongos you may want to bring them for entertainment purposes.

Fishing at Cayo Costa
Yes, there are fish. Yes, you can catch them. Yes, all methods work. Let's start with the relatively crude ones and work our way up the angling hierarchy.

A light spinning rod (8-10 pound line), a sandspike, a few hooks, a few sinkers, and some shrimp will catch you some fish. If you don't have any shrimp you can often get someone with a boat to pick some up for you when they go on a grocery run.

Off the beach you'll get seatrout, flounder, sheepshead, pompano, whiting, an occasional redfish, and various "less desirable" species. All you need to do is toss your bait out with the smallest possible hook (size 1 would be an adequate choice) and sinker (1/4 to 1/2 ounce) combination and the shrimp will do the rest.

Sometimes sand fleas are available for the industrious fisherman who wants to dig for them at the water's edge. Sand fleas are actually mole crabs. They look a little bit like light colored cockroaches, and make excellent bait.

You can also dunk bait off of the dock and get the same basic selection, plus grouper and mangrove snapper, too.

The more serious bait fisherman will bring a cast net and net pilchards, mullet, or other baitfish. You'll get fewer but larger fish, including snook.

If you prefer artificials, you can walk the beach and cast. Plugs (I prefer poppers such as Storm's Chug Bug, but MirroLures, Rebels, Rat-L-Traps, and others will all work as well), spoons, jigs, and the DOA Bait Busters are all effective on a variety of fish including seatrout, redfish, snook, jack crevalle, and various others at different seasons. Although you can catch fish anytime, you'll probably have your best luck when fishing the beach for two hours on either side of high tide.

It's very possible to sightfish for snook along the beach all summer long. Fly tackle excels for this. Flies should be simple white hackle streamers. Walk along the beach, 15-20 feet back from the water's edge, and look for the fish right in the wash.

When you see them deliver the fly a foot or two ahead of them. The response, yea or nay, is usually immediate. These fish tend to be smaller specimens, running up to a maximum of seven or eight pounds, so a seven weight outfit will be plenty.

If you're not a fly fisher, using spinning tackle with a small, white, soft plastic minnow imitation works well. A DOA CAL shad tail would be a good choice.

Of course bigger snook are caught from the beach too. The big boys don't make a habit of lying in inches of water, though. You'll have to blind cast out into the deeper areas and hope for the best.

Two of the best spots to fish along the beach include the outlet stream of the "lagoon," on the beach side south of the campsites. Fish this outflow on a falling tide. The current carries baitfish and predators realize this. I haven't ever caught anything other than ladyfish in the lagoon itself, although I continue to hear rumors that there are snook in there.

The other place requires a hike to the north end of the island, to Boca Grande Pass. There are several rock ledges here towards the northwest corner of the island, along with some fallen timber. As the water temperature warms up in the spring lots of snook can be found here on higher tide phases, up tight in the trees. Grouper, trout, jacks, flounder, redfish, and more use the rocks all year long, on all tide phases. If you continue fishing this shoreline heading south along the bayside, redfish and snook can frequently be found along the trees and out into deeper water, so much so that it's a popular spot for anglers in boats.

You can also wade along the bay side of the island, starting at the dock. Work your way north or south, it doesn't matter too much. Reds, snook, and seatrout will be anywhere along the shoreline out to a depth of several feet. Again, fly fishers can have a blast doing this. A chartreuse and white Clouser minnow will work as well as anything most of the time. Popovics' Siliclone is a great mullet imitation and works extremely well when the fish are feeding on mullet. Synthetic minnow ties like the EP flies are another good choice. The trout will usually be out away from the bank in deeper water and require blind casting.

You can also stealthily wade and sightfish for reds and snook with fly or light tackle. It's sight fishing at its finest. Lower tide phases are preferred for this.

Tarpon season rolls around at the end of April and the fish stay in Boca Grande Pass and along the beaches until about Independence Day. The big silver kings provide plenty of fireworks to boating anglers who chase them with all kinds of tackle.

Shorebound anglers are not usually in this game- you must have a boat. That having been said, I have seen tarpon right near the camping beach there at Cayo Costa, although if you hooked a 100 pound plus tarpon from the beach and couldn't follow him in a boat I don't how you would ever get him. Of course there are lots of guides who will take you after tarpon for a fee.

After tarpon season ends, snook, redfish, and grouper are all available in the passes at various times. Again, you must have a boat to get access. The dock at the south end of Gasparilla Island is home to a collection of huge snook. Most anglers fishing here with any degree of success use stout tackle and live bait. You'll need the tackle to pull the fish away from the pilings. You'll need bait because they seldom hit artificials. If you're bait shy, fish elsewhere.

The entire area of Charlotte Harbor and Pine Island Sound offers superb opportunities for redfish, snook, and seatrout all year long. Tarpon and cobia are both available in season.

The snook here, as well as the rest of southeast Florida, exhibit seasonal movements, moving into the backcountry creeks in the fall and back out through the passes and along the beaches in the late spring.

Miles of grass flats await exploration. Oyster reefs litter Pine Island Sound, and mangrove islands dot the entire area. Small creeks and the large rivers lie off to the east. There's plenty to do!

Off the beaches tarpon are available in early summer, as mentioned above. Farther out, kings run by every spring (March through May, mostly) and fall (October to mid-December). Using live pilchards you can chum the kings into an absolute frenzy, then easily entice a strike on a bait or fly. Cobia remain around markers leading out from Boca Grande Pass all year long. Tripletail show during the fall and stay into the spring months. You'll find them if you look under crab buoys, markers, weed lines, and floating debris. For a fisherman there's certainly plenty to do in the waters surrounding Cayo Costa.

Conclusion

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This article was written by John Kumiski of John Kumiski Outdoors and Travel. Contact him at his website www.johnkumiski.com or via email at john@spottedtail.com. Copyright John Kumiski.

John Kumiski 's most recent fishing guidebooks are How and Where to Catch Redfish in the Indian River Lagoon System (Argonaut Publishing Company), and Fishing Florida's Space Coast (Argonaut Publishing Company).

John Kumiski's newest book is Redfish on the Fly- A Comprehensive Guide .

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